Review: The Smurfs “Ogre Love”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When Smurfette removes a splinter from Bigmouth’s thumb, he immediately falls in love with her and follows her to the village.

Our Take:

It was unusual for me to return to The Smurfs in the middle of its second season, but hey, better late than never. The show’s first three half-hour specials have been doing plenty to keep me entertained with its smurfy misadventures. Some of them would’ve been better off with the 11-minute format if I remember right, but they’re still enjoyable regardless. So now we have the fourth two-part episode of the series featuring love at first sight, but not in the way you think. 

Bigmouth, the giant ogre, has occasionally made brief appearances throughout the series, either for comical purposes or his attempts to eat the Smurfs. “Ogre Love” is the only episode so far that puts the big guy in the spotlight with the blue creatures. However, instead of seeing him trying to gobble up the Smurfs, we see him winning the heart of Smurfette after she removes a splinter from his thumb.

The first half consists of Bigmouth following Smurfette around Smurf Village and wrecking the Smurfs’ daily lives. Jokey thought Bigmouth would make for a reliable bodyguard after he saved the Smurfs from Gargamel and Azrael. But unfortunately, that plan was quickly thrown out the window when Bigmouth kept bothering Smurfette.

This leads us to the episode’s second half, which sees Smurfette trying to get Bigmouth to leave. However, Bigmouth doesn’t take no for an answer, so he captures Smurfette and takes her back to his house so they can live together forever. As a result, Papa Smurf and the others set out on a rescue mission to save her, while Smurfette goes through different methods to escape from the clutches of her “boyfriend”. They eventually devised a perfect solution to their ogre problem: disguising Gargamel as Smurfette so that Bigmouth can live “happily ever after” with him instead of Smurfette.

Based on the plot, “Ogre Love” looked like something that could’ve been solved in under ten minutes. However, it had enough understandable moments to warrant its 23-minute runtime, especially regarding Bigmouth’s dim-witted personality. Most of its humor consists of Bigmouth getting too attached to Smurfette while being a nuisance to the other Smurfs and Smurfette’s attempts to escape from the ogre. The running gag with Hefty getting knocked down by Bigmouth while rescuing Smurfette was my personal highlight regarding its comedy. Overall, I would say this latest half-hour special is worth falling in love with if you’re still a fan of Nickelodeon’s iteration of The Smurfs.